This invention relates to animal metabolism units, and more particularly to a device for encaging a test animal, such as a mouse, a rat, a hamster, a guinea pig or a rabbit, and collecting and separating liquid and solid matter excreted by the encaged animal.
The animal metabolism unit of this invention is an improvement upon the prior animal metabolism unit disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,227,139 of myself and Charles A. Bunten, issued Jan. 4, 1966.
In said prior unit, a cage having a funnel therebelow is mounted in a container. Excreted liquid and solid matter are separated by means of a bulbous deflector at the lower end of a rod extending down through the lower end of the funnel. Liquid flows down on the exterior surface of this deflector (which is outside the funnel) to drip into a receptacle in the container resting in the bottom of the container. Solid matter is deflected outwardly from the liquid collector by the deflector and collects in the container on the bottom of the container. This prior unit, while generally satisfactory, may in certain instances present the problem of undue evaporation of liquid from the relatively large surface of the bulbous deflector, and some inconvenience in that the cage proper must be removed from the container for access to the receptacle for liquid matter and also for removal of the solid matter collected in the container.